I went to this race because it was my niece's first 5k and she asked for me to run with her. I was overjoyed that she wanted me to be there, so of course I said yes. I signed up online, which was very easy. When we got there we had a hard time finding where bib pick-up was. I finally asked someone who already had her bib where I needed to go. All the bib #'s where #1, because even though they had a timer going this wasn't an officially timed event. Ahead of time they had stations set up for all the teams to meet, they had a station where parents could buy shirts and then a hair coloring station. They did offer a zumba lesson ahead of time.

The goal of this event is to raise girls self-esteem and not worry about their pace as they are running. I felt a little awkward wearing my garmin after I heard this statement. After knowing the coaches knew about this, I was very surprised that some groups the adults took off and left the kids in the dust. If it wasn't for me running with my niece and her friend they would have been out on the road by themselves.
For a race that isn't about time and is to help girls, I was surprised there wasn't more volunteers along the race course to make sure the girls where ok. Especially, when a lot of their parents didn't run with them and they were on their own. They had great signs set up, so the girls knew when every km was done. I was talking up the water stop to the girls as we were running, only to get there and realize they weren't prepared at all. Some women where putting cups in the coolers to get water, while others were pouring water out of individual bottles. After waiting for over two minutes I finally grabbed a bottle of water and gave it to my two girls to drink and we ran back with it. The girls and I ran back to the finish, where they gave each girl a nice medal. After they finished they got a bottle of water. I was surprised that for a race that is usually the first 5k for girls they had no oranges or any food for them to eat afterwards. By the way it was set up I would think this was their first year, but I know that isn't the case.